A good point from Ezra Klein on the health care reform effort:

“No Republican save Olympia Snowe has actually come forward with a concrete set of proposals that could permit them to sign onto the final legislation. Which is a shame, as there are actually places where conservative ideas and Republican cover could have bettered the bill. Conservatives have long wanted to end the preference for employer-based insurance, which would’ve been an important step forward. Many Republicans have been big proponents of moving away from fee-for-service medicine, which is a needed change. Republicans have been big proponents of making the insurance market more consumer-focused, which would be important in the context of the insurance exchanges.”

“But all those opportunities were lost. Because Democrats had no Republican cover, they could not sacrifice a single member of their party. That’s meant that they couldn’t be courageous on taxes, and they couldn’t tell the unions to stuff it when they demanded that the exchanges remain constricted. Republicans complain that the bill is too liberal (though the Senate Finance Committee’s bill is actually not very liberal at all), but that’s in part because no Republicans were willing to offer their votes in return for making it more conservative.”
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